Northern Knights vs Hobart Hurricanes: Hurricanes score 178 as Blizzard and Malik dominate the final overs

Northern Districts won the toss and invited the Hurricanes to bat first on a slowish wickets that was suited for the bowlers.

Updated: September 23, 2014 10:57 PM IST

By Abhimanyu Shahi

Northern Knights vs Hobart Hurricanes: Hurricanes score 178 as Blizzard and Malik dominate the final overs

Northern Knights vs Hobart Hurricanes: Hurricanes score 178 as Blizzard and Malik dominate the final overs

Hobart Hurricanes recovered from a slow start and posted a competetive total of 178 in their allocated 20 overs. The Hurricanes were propelled by a couple of valuable innings from Tim Paine at the top of the order and Aiden Blizzard and Shoaib Malik at the end of the innings. They added no less than 76 runs in the last 5 overs of the innings.

Northern Districts won the toss and invited the Hurricanes to bat first on a slowish wickets that was suited for the bowlers. Their opening bowlers once again got them off to an excellent start as they gave away just 31 runs in the first 6 powerplay overs. Tim Southee and Trent Boult were as good as ever, giving nothing away in terms of runs and building up enough pressure for the other bowlers to take advantage of.

They picked up the dangerous Ben Dunk very early as Dunk gave away to the pressure that was built on by the pacers. Dunk could only manage 12 runs of the 17 deliveries he faced as he caught at mid onn off the bolwing of Scott Styris. Tim Paine took charge of the scoring once the frontline bowlers were removed from the attack. He played some excellent strokes in his innings of 43 runs before being caught at long onn off the bowling of Ish Sodhi.

Aiden Blizzard and Shoaib Malik took charge from there onwards and played sensible cricket, not letting any more wickets fall. They scored off the bad deliveries and built towards a strong ending as they scored 102/2 after the end of 15th over, providing them with an excellent platform to launch an attack towards the end.

Shoaib Malik in particular looked exceptional as took great advantage of the wet ball as dew kept on dripping on the outfield. He struck the experienced Scott Styris for 19 runs in the 16th over, showing why he is considered so highly on the world stage. They took full advantage of the wet ball as they scored 76 runs in the last 5 overs.

Aiden Blizzard caught steam in the last 5 overs of the game, as he completed his 50 in just 39 deliveries in the 19th over. Shoaib Malik too scored at the rate of knots and had a strike rate of almost 200. Blizzard scored 4 consecutive boundaries of Boult in the 19th over as the knights seemed helpless against the batting of the Hurricanes and the the dew.

Blizzard was finally dismissed in the last over on the score of 63 from just 43 deliveries. The Hurricanes managed to score 178 runs, a score far more competetive than what they looked like getting at one point of time. Shoaib Malik ultimately ended up getting 45 of just 22 deliveries.

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